CHAPTER 12

"Don't say that, Lizzie. You never know. After all, he won't be able to stay away from you for long when you're hanging out with us just like you normally do." James said. I attempted a smile, but I failed miserably.

"Do me a favor and take Padfoot up to bed and make him sleep there. I don't like that he stayed up all night just so I wouldn't be alone. I mean, its not like I even knew he had been here so it was rather pointless." I said. James and Peter nodded. They woke Sirius up.

"What?" Sirius asked sleepily.

"Lizzie requested that you get taken to bed." Peter said. I rolled my eyes and James burst out laughing. Then Peter finally realized how it sounded.

"So who's the lucky girl?" Sirius asked, wide awake by that point.

"We could always send Lizzie up there for you once she's released." Peter laughed. James hit him upside the head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"For being such an idiot sometimes." James snarled. Pomfrey suddenly appeared from her office.

"You two leave, now." She said. It was obvious that she had seen and heard what had happened.

James and Peter obeyed, probably both scared half to death of what would happen if they stuck around. They didn't even look back as they scampered out the door.

"They were supposed to take Sirius up to their dorm and make him sleep." I said.

"So I heard." Pomfrey replied. She checked me over and said all my wounds were healed. I had known they were because going by everything on my bedside table, she had probably given me almost every healing potion in my sleep, and there was no telling how many spells and charms she had done on me.

"When can I leave?" I asked.

"Tomorrow." she replied before walking off. I looked over at Sirius and noticed he was actually wide awake.

"Padfoot, go get some sleep. Please, for me?" I said.

"I'm not leaving you here alone." Sirius replied. I rolled my eyes.

"It's not like I'm still in danger of dying, Padfoot." I said.

"I know. I just don't want you being here alone. You never let me be alone whenever I was up here." he pointed out.

"Fine. But you at least have to try sleeping." I snapped.

SIRIUS'S POV

"Fine, but you at least have to try sleeping." Lizzie snapped.

"Only if you sleep first." I said. I had no intention of sleeping and she realized it, but she rolled over and within two minutes she was sleeping.

I sat there watching her for almost an hour before Pomfrey came out of her office.

"I don't know why you won't go up to bed. You're going to be the next one in here, only you're going to be in for over exhausting yourself." she said.

"I don't want her being in here alone." I replied.

"You know she's perfectly fine and she'd rather be alone than know that you aren't sleeping all because of her." Pomfrey said.

"Well unless you kick me out, I'm not leaving." I said. She rolled her eyes.

"Consider yourself kicked out. Now you better go up to bed and actually sleep, Black." she snapped. I sighed but went up to bed like she ordered.

I was surprised by how easy it was for me to fall asleep.

When I woke up, I was surprised to see it was the next morning. Remus, James, and Peter were all getting ready for the day.

"Looks like Padfoot finally decided to quit sleeping." Peter laughed.

"Peter was worried you were in a coma or something. You've been sleeping for like fifteen hours." Remus said.

"Today's Sunday isn't it?" I asked. They all nodded. "Boy, Lizzie's gonna hate this. Having to spend the only day of the weekend she's out of the hospital wing doing all her homework." I laughed.

"She's getting out today? That's a relief." Remus said.

"Why would you care?" I asked.

"Because I want me and her to stay friends, but I don't want to be WITH her while she likes you, even though she's in denial about everything." Remus replied. I didn't say anything. I got ready for the day and went up to the hospital wing.

I was surprised to find Lizzie getting ready to leave. She seemed relieved to see me.

"Why do you look so relieved to see me?" I asked, laughing slightly.

"Because I didn't wanna walk into the common room alone incase he's in there." she replied.

"Uh, Lizzie, he's under the impression that you and him are still gonna be real good friends, just not a couple." I said. She didn't look fazed.

"I know, but I didn't want him to be the first thing I see when I walk in if I'm alone." she replied. She attempted smiling.

"Well I did like you said and went and got some sleep. Are you happy?" I asked. She nodded. We walked to the common room and I was pleased to see Remus wasn't in there. I knew she was happy about it too.

"Padfoot, can you come with me? I don't wanna be completely alone, but I need to run up to my room." she asked quietly. The common room was empty so I quickly phased into a dog and trotted at her heels up to her room. She stuck her head into the room to make sure no one was there. Thankfully Claire was the only one in there.

"Lizzie, why would you bring him in here? The others could be back to get something they accidentally left and they'd all freak out if they saw a big black dog in their room!" Claire said when we walked in. I whined.

"It's nothing against you, Sirius. Just that we could all three get in bad trouble if anyone found out you were up here as much as you are." Claire explained.

"Relax Claire. I'm just getting some stuff and taking a shower. He can lay on my bed while I do that." Lizzie said. Claire rolled her eyes but didn't say anything else.

Once Lizzie was in the bathroom, Claire looked at me. I knew she was going to say something and that I wouldn't be able to answer in my dog form but I wasn't about to transform back into a human just in case.

"I know she was in the hospital wing, but why? The others won't tell me anything except she was in there and you stayed with her until yesterday afternoon." Claire asked. I just looked at her.

"Did her and Remus break up?" she asked. I still stared at her, not doing anything to indicate the answer. "You know, you're kind of creeping me out, staring at me like that."

I gave her a grin, but I knew it looked more like I was just showing my teeth until my tongue dangled out the side of my mouth. We sat in silence staring at each other until Lizzie emerged again. My mouth almost fell open when I saw what she looked like.

She was wearing tight dark jeans and a tight silver tank top. Her hair was of course in it's natural kinky curls, she did her makeup to look like she had smokey eyes, and she was wearing silver high heels. She went to her dresser and pulled something out. I soon found out it was a dark jean jacket that ended at the bottom of her rib cage. She buttoned it up but left the two top buttons undone, showing the very top of her tank top.

"Who are you trying to impress, Lizzie?" Claire asked. She threw a pillow at me while Lizzie's back was turned. I looked at Claire. "You're mouth was wide open and you looked like you were gonna drool" she mouthed. I was thankful she had prevented Lizzie from finding out.

"No one. You're the one who always said it feels better to dress up right after a breakup. And you were right. For some reason it actually makes me feel better." Lizzie replied.

"Mind waiting on me before going to breakfast?" Claire asked. Lizzie shook her head. Claire grabbed some clothes before going into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she came out. Her hair was straight, she had on a sapphire blue shirt, tight medium wash jeans, minimal makeup, and blue heels.

Once we were down to the bottom of the steps and I made sure no one was in the common room, I turned back into a human.

"I don't know if I look good enough to escort you ladies down to breakfast." I said, laughing. They both laughed.

"You look good enough to be our pimp for the walk down there." Claire laughed. That caused Lizzie to almost fall over laughing.

"Well ladies, I'm ready when yall are." I laughed. Claire was on my left side and Lizzie was on my right. Claire insisted on us all linking arms.

"God, they're gonna really think stuff now." Lizzie laughed. I was glad to see she wasn't to upset to laugh.

Once we got to breakfast, we let go of each other but still walked in with me in the middle of them. We went down to the end of the table where Chris was sitting.

"If you two don't mind, I'm going to go sit with the guys." I said. They both smiled and waved.

"Are you a pimp now or something?" Peter asked when I walked over to where the other three were sitting.

"Not hardly. I met Lizzie at the hospital wing as she was leaving and she wanted me to walk with her to the common room and then she made me wait on her and Claire. She seems to not want to be alone, and since Chris was no where to be found, they needed a man to walk with them. Who was I to refuse two ladies in need?" I replied.

The other three laughed. I could tell Remus hadn't really liked the entrance we had made, but I knew he wasn't very upset.